That does not mean Kris Letang will play Tuesday—or any day in the foreseeable future—but the Pittsburgh Penguins defenseman's recovery from a late-January stroke (yes, seriously) is coming along well.

Kris Letang (AP Photo)

"There's no indication at this point in time of when a return to play is even possible," coach Dan Bylsma said.

Still, Letang's improvements, along with that of several other players, has to have Bylsma thinking that his team has turned the corner on a particularly rough stretch of injuries, and a dip in effectiveness that has accompanied it.

"He was one of the best skaters on the ice today, if not the best skater on the ice," Bylsma said. "He can fly, and he's got that power—he had a battle in the corner with (winger) Beau Bennett, and he looked every bit of one of the the best guys down low."

Letang's absence has been Pittsburgh's highest-profile, but the Penguins (4-4-2 in their last 10) lead the league in man games lost, with more than 400, and they're 100 ahead of their closest competition. Letang, winger James Neal, defenseman Paul Martin, defenseman Rob Scuderi, defenseman Brooks Orpik and Bennett have all missed huge chunks of the season. Martin is still out with a broken hand; Bennett is nearing a return from a broken wrist and practiced Monday.

Scuderi and Letang, in particular, have had minimal time together after starting the season as a presumed regular pairing; less than 155 minutes total. The thinking is that Scuderi will allow Letang to take more risks and that Letang's skill will cover in instances where Scuderi looks his 35 years. Possession stats didn't exactly bear that out in the early going, but there were signs of improvement.

The two may have had their best game together of the season on Jan. 27 against Buffalo, which was Letang's last. When they were on the ice, Pittsburgh controlled more than 62 percentof all even-strength shot attempts (Corsi For).

"It was unfortunate because we were really were just starting to get a chemistry there. I thought we played two or three real good games in a row," Scuderi said.

That sort of performance is what Pittsburgh has missed; in 14 games since, Scuderi's Corsi For has exceeded 50 percent just four times, and Pittsburgh as a whole has been outshot and outpossessed at even strength. Letang isn't a cure-all for that, but he'd certainly help. And those stats only measure even-strength play. Letang might not be a true top-flight power-play QB, but taking him out of the 5-on-4 equation doesn't make Pittsburgh any better.

The question is whether getting Letang and Martin back in the lineup with a full complement of regular forwards will help the Penguins' underlying numbers enough; they've run and hid with the Metropolitan Division lead, but there should be real reasons for skepticism over whether they, as currently constituted, are capable of winning a Stanley Cup.

If Sidney Crosby and Evgeni Malkin have a couple off games, as they did last season against the Boston Bruins, there's no reason to think that Pittsburgh's other lines, as they exist right now, can pick up the slack.

Pittsburgh controls 50.4 percent of unblocked shot attempts in close games, which is 15th in the league, and they're trending downward. This chart from ExtraSkater.com better illustrated that; this is a team that, increasingly, does not have the puck.

But having Bennett back in the mix to go with Jussi Jokinen, Brandon Sutter and deadline additions Lee Stempniak and Marcel Goc? There's a third line there somewhere.

The forward groupings will soon have their shot to work themselves out. The good news for Bylsma, his defense and, most importantly, Letang, is that a return is going to happen—at some point.

"There was no doubt in my mind, even the day I got the stroke (diagnosis)," Letang said. "I asked the doctor, 'when am I gonna be able to play again?' "

Letang also said that it wasn't "100 percent" that a hole in his heart found during testing caused the stroke.

"There's many other reasons you can have a stroke," he said. "We don't want to really worry about the heart right now, we just want to worry that my system is cleared of the symptoms I have."

Bylsma, for his right, is content with taking doctors' orders as they come: "I'm barely capable of understanding what they tell me, let alone trying to make decisions (on a timeframe)."